Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington. / Bibliography: l. 486-490.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-220). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-220). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1962. / Appendix in Japanese characters. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-303).

The thesis is set against the backdrop of literary Chinese as the cosmopolitan written language across East Asia and examines two contemporary literary Chinese writers in the ninth century: Ch'oe Ch'iwǒn from Silla Korea and Sugawara no Michizane from Heian Japan. Though composition in Chinese characters on the peninsula and the archipelago was ancient, a high-water mark within this community appeared in the ninth century. At that time, literary Chinese was embraced by mainstream literati as the medium for poetry and prose, and competent composition in this international written language came to have political as well as cultural significance. The importance of Ch'oe Ch'iwǒn and Sugawara no Michizane as the great masters of Chinese letters in Korea and Japan derives in part from their talents and in part from the social and political acceptance of Chinese. This comparative research primarily draws inspiration from Sheldon Pollock's comparison of the Sanskrit cosmopolis and the Latin cosmopolis. Pollock describes the Latin cosmopolis as coercive and the Sanskrit cosmopolis as voluntaristic. I argue that the history of literary Chinese in East Asia provides a third cosmo-political model for the history of interactions among language, literature, and cultural and military power. The literary Chinese cosmopolis can be characterized not as coercive or voluntaristic but as hegemonic. I compare Ch'oe Ch'iwǒn and Sugawara no Michizane for their cosmopolitan identities, transnational experiences, and diglossic worlds. Though there is debate over the appropriateness of the terms "diglossia," "Chinese cosmopolis," and "Sinographic cosmopolis" to describe the world in which Ch'oe and Michizane lived, I argue in favor of "literary Chinese cosmopolis," because I pay attention to the common grammar, syntax, and other linguistic features one must bear in mind when composing in literary Chinese (as opposed to reading). Localism produced vernaculars, but the unity of the community was based on composition in a cosmopolitan language. That cosmopolitan language was literary Chinese, a hyperglossic language, a language that allowed universal communication in East Asia. Intersecting with various disciplines and bringing several critical fields into conversation, this work contests and refreshes a series of key issues at the heart of discussions on globalization, namely the intrinsic relationship between language and power. How does cultural power emerge from language? How does writing in a "foreign" script articulate ethnic, local identities? As a meditation on language politics, ethics, and the historical situation of an earlier cosmopolitan ecumene (ninth century CE), this work will, I hope, offer insights into the specificities and mechanisms of a past cosmopolitan era in East Asia, even as it establishes a broader historical and ethical context for contemporary debates on globalization.

Sugawara no Michizane était un lettré du 9e siècle qui fut élevé au rang de kami et qui inspira un culte qui demeure encore extrêmement vivace de nos jours. Le personnage historique et sa forme divinisée inspirèrent quantité d’histoires qui furent, entre autres raisons, créées pour justifier l’édification de sanctuaires voués à son culte, expliquer l’origine d’un fait religieux local ou d’un toponyme. Dans ce travail, nous nous proposons d'étudier les récits fictifs qui mettent en scène le personnage historique de Sugawara no Michizane et d’aborder le sujet sous trois angles différents. La première partie de notre étude consistera en l’établissement d’une énumération de ces légendes au moyen d’un large appareil de documents (récits de fondation, monographies, journaux de voyage…) qui nous permettra d’identifier leurs particularités, leur répartition dans l’espace et dans la vie de Sugawara no Michizane. Cette liste permettra de faire ressortir l’existence d’un certain nombre de « valeurs constantes » que l’on retrouve en fait non seulement dans les histoires de Sugawara no Michizane mais aussi dans celles qui mettent en scène d’autres personnages historiques. La seconde approche de ces légendes consistera à étudier précisément ces « valeurs constantes » et à tenter d’en déterminer l’origine. La troisième et dernière approche des légendes aura pour but d’étudier leurs « valeurs variables » et de voir ce qu’elles peuvent, à leur tour, nous apprendre sur leurs auteurs ainsi que les circonstances de leur création. / Sugawara no Michizane was a 9th century scholar who was turned into a god and inspired a cult still popular nowadays. His human and divine forms both inspired countless legends which were told, amongst other reasons, in order to justify the building of shrines devoted to his cult, and to explain the origin of local customs and places’ names. This dissertation will focus on the legends built around the historical figure of Sugawara no Michizane and analyze them under three different perspectives. The first perspective consists of an enumeration of legends using a large array of documents such as foundation stories, monographs and travelers’ journals. This is the first time such a list has been compiled. This list enables us to identify particularities and distributions in both space and span of Sugawara no Michizane’s life. This list also allows us to establish the existence of a certain number of “constant patterns” which not only appear in Sugawara no Michizane’s stories but also in stories involving other historical figures. The second perspective of the study examines these “constant patterns” and suggests possibilities for their possible origin. The third and last perspective of our study will deal with the so-called “variable patterns” of the stories and will suggest who created these stories and the reasons for their creation.

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